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"
Having attained the altitude before mentioned, that is to say three
miles and three-quarters, I threw out from the car a quantity of
feathers, and found that I still ascended with sufficient rapidity;
there was, therefore, no necessity for discharging any ballast. I was
glad of this, for I wished to retain with me as much weight as I could
carry, for reasons which will be explained in the sequel. I as yet
suffered no bodily inconvenience, breathing with great freedom, and
feeling no pain whatever in the head. The cat was lying very demurely
upon my coat, which I had taken off, and eyeing the pigeons with an air
of nonchalance. These latter being tied by the leg, to prevent their
escape, were busily employed in picking up some grains of rice scattered
for them in the bottom of the car.
"At twenty minutes past six o'clock, the barometer showed an elevation
of 26,400 feet, or five miles to a fraction. The prospect seemed
unbounded. Indeed, it is very easily calculated by means of spherical
geometry, what a great extent of the earth's area I beheld. The convex
surface of any segment of a sphere is, to the entire surface of the
sphere itself, as the versed sine of the segment to the diameter of the
sphere. Now, in my case, the versed sine--that is to say, the thickness
of the segment beneath me--was about equal to my elevation, or the
elevation of the point of sight above the surface. 'As five miles, then,
to eight thousand,' would express the proportion of the earth's area
seen by me. In other words, I beheld as much as a sixteen-hundredth
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